PANAMA CITY: The Hong Kong firm whose management of two ports at either end of the Panama Canal sparked United States President Donald Trump’s ire flouted the conditions of its contract, according to audit results released on Monday (Apr 7).
The audit found “many breaches” of the concession awarded to a subsidiary of logistics giant CK Hutchison to operate the two ports and said Panama did not receive US$1.2 billion it was owed under the contract.
The release of the audit results came hours before US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was to arrive in Panama, which has come under strong pressure from Trump to reduce Chinese influence in the canal.
Faced with Trump’s repeated threats to “take back” the US-built canal, the Central American country in turn has put pressure on CK Hutchison to relinquish its control of the ports.
In March, the firm announced an agreement to sell 43 ports in 23 countries – including its two on the interoceanic Panama Canal – to a group led by giant asset manager BlackRock for US$19 billion in cash.
A furious Beijing has since announced an antitrust review of the deal, likely preventing the parties from signing an agreement on Apr 2 as planned.
